MONTREAL
Saturday February 8, 2:30pm, Silent Disco Dance Squad, location and time TBA
Dust off or Create your own silly hat and embrace Winter with an awesome outdoor Silent Disco danceparty.
Download the crowd-sourced mix (download link to be placed here)+ load it on your mp3 player/smartphone OR stream. Show up at the announced location with music device + headphones. At (time TBA) we will countdown + hit play on our devices at the same time! We create a shared music world + the dancing begins, respectfully spreading joy and mayhem.
TORONTO
It’s the Toronto premiere of Chelsea McMullan’s documentary about Rae Spoon, My Prairie Home. Followed by a Q & A and a karaoke afterparty at the Steady.
C!C!C! will sing an acoustic version of U.S.S.’s Yin-Yang and get filmed for a music video! Plus recording a re-written version of Sting’s “Russians” in protest of the Sochi Winter Games beginning next week. All proceeds go to EGALE, which is Canada’s only national charity promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) human rights through research, education and community engagement.
Saturday February 8, 1pm, Ally Workshop and Discussion, Xpace Cultural Centre, 2-303 Landsdowne, free, RSVP to [email protected]
Please join us for a workshop and discussion on how to be an Ally with Robin Fraser, Jessie Short and Heather Haynes. Jessie Short and Heather Haynes first met when Jessie, an emerging Aboriginal curator, co-curated an exhibition at the Toronto Free Gallery in June 2012. Since this time, Jessie and Heather’s paths continue to cross in the arts/cultural world of Toronto. Both will discuss their respective understanding of anti-oppression work and the role of allies, taking account of the differences between theory, practice, taking responsibility and the necessity for building relationships.
First-ever matinee show. Featuring The 2013 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) champion Toronto Poetry Slam team.
Saturday February 8, 9:30pm, Toronto Queer Slowdance, Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt, $10
With a lending library of designated dancers for all you wallflowers, and a dancecard-booklet to set up dances in advance (should you choose to), Toronto Queer Slowdance has all slow songs, all night long! (Except for the occasional intermission when we play the fastest songs we can find!) It’s high school with a happy ending. Come and experience why slow is beautiful, and why love is not ironic.
HALIFAX
Two film artists with African heritage—and a connection to Nova Scotia—will have their works shown at the Dalhousie Art Gallery for African Heritage Month. The first, the late actor Godfrey Cambridge, is featured in two landmark Hollywood Studio Films from 1970: Melvin Van Peebles’ The Watermelon Man and Ossie Davis’ Cotton Comes To Harlem, both, of course, directed by pioneer Black Directors. Cambridge, born in New York City, was sent to live with his grandparents in Sydney, Nova Scotia until he was 13.
The second is Sylvia D. Hamilton, whose four documentaries, Black Mother, Black Daughter, Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia, Portia White: Think on Me, and The Little Black School House, reveal a vital non-fiction filmmaker—with a raft of international prizes and acclaim to her credit—capturing African Nova Scotian and Canadian issues in a frank and illuminating manner. A special Film Tribute to the late Dr. Burnley “Rocky” Jones will close the series on March 4.
— Local Reporting: Cam Fortems and Michele Young, Kamloops Daily News, for stories on health care in a thinly-populated area of BC; Susan Gamble, Brantford Expositor, for stories on OxyContin abuse and stolen car epidemic in Brantford; Karena Walter, St. Catharines Standard, for an investigation of a phoney kitchen renovation company; Barb Sweet, St. John’s Telegram, NL, for the enduring fallout of the sexual abuse tragedy at the Mount Cashel orphanage.